Saturday, August 08, 2009

When you're talking about Tom Harkin, there's a lot to protest so we narrowed it down and showed up at one of Harkin's events to protest the outrage of the month: His support of Obamacare.

Our angry mob consisted of four concerned citizens holding signs on the sidewalk at the entrance to a inner-city health care clinic where Harkin had an event scheduled. We welcomed people walking in the door to the event and many shared our cause. Although we may have been welcomed, our questions certainly wouldn't have been and our signs weren't, so we stayed outside.

We'll find out later this evening on the news, but I'm sure Harkin's remarks consisted of a bunch of empty platitudes about how socialized medicine will benefit the residents of this neighborhood enormously -- never mind the fact that other failed government programs exist that can provide health services for these folks and there's no sense in adding another larger one that is doomed to failure from the very start.

Kind of funny that Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the DNC want to paint us as an "angry mob" organized by the insurance industry and the RNC. I didn't even know the three other guys that were there except for having emailed back and forth with one who was an organizer of the July 4th Tea Party at the state capitol. The angry ones were the supporters of Obamacare. One called us idiots. Several took issue with my sign which read "Reject government-run health care! 30 million Canadians can't be wrong." When they tried to tell me the Canadian health care system was great, I told them "sure, unless you have to access it". One passer-by in an SUV slowed down enough to roll down his window and shut F-- ya'll at us. Now there's some rational debate.

This was my first time to really get out and make my opinion known in public and it sure won't be the last. Oh sure, I fax every representative under the sun; I try to influence anybody I can within in my sphere of influence; I email every state senator and representative during the state legislative session and sometimes they even answer back until you challenge them too much on their beliefs and agenda. The thing that has most impressed me in the last couple of years is that it shouldn't be this hard to be a citizen. Most conservatives just want to go about their business and hope the government will just stay out of their way. But the government is getting in our faces so we're all going to have to do more -- and that includes getting the the faces of our representatives and demanding that they either represent us or get out. Our very liberty and the quality of life for ourselves, our kids and grand kids are at stake.